


Just Another Day

by falsteloj



Category: Brittas Empire
Genre: British Comedy, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Comedy, Funny, M/M, Misunderstandings, Romantic Comedy, Yuletide, Yuletide 2012, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 08:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falsteloj/pseuds/falsteloj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brittas is clueless, Tim is jealous, and Gavin is at his wit's end. It's just another day at Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> Yuletide 2012 treat for Frannie - I hope you enjoy! :)

It was a perfectly ordinary day at Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre when the trouble began.

Carol was weeping softly into a tissue as the twins smeared half eaten weetabix into their hair, Laura and Linda had been called away to facilitate in the cornering of a frightened wildebeest currently terrorising the weights room, and Colin was busy cordoning off the swimming pool now that the test results for flesh eating bacteria had come back positive.

It was probably the latter, Gavin later reflected, that had actually brought Councillor Druggett down from the Town Hall. In the heat of the moment, however, it was all he could do to keep an increasingly irrational Tim from punching in the last digit of Mrs Vogel-Downing’s - one of his SlimTrim regulars - telephone number.

“I know you're lying to me!” Tim told him, eyes flashing. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

“I’ve never seen them before,” Gavin protested in return. “I don’t know how they ended up in my locker.” He made another lurch for the handset as the words left his mouth and, though it had been by no means intentional, the next thing he knew a blur of colour was flying through the air, and the telephone was clattering uselessly to the floor of reception.

Tim’s eyes went wide, and Gavin opened his mouth to prevent Councillor Druggett walking out to meet the waiting press with a rather skimpy red lace bra hooked around the arm of his crutches, but it was too late, and Mr. Brittas was leaning over the banister of the stairwell and calling,

“Gavin, a word in my office, please.”

Upstairs Gavin offered a bemused looking brunette a cautious smile, before gingerly taking a seat next to her. Brittas settled into his own chair, beaming broadly at the two of them.

“I’ve got a special job for you.”

* * *

Downstairs, Tim took the (thankfully fresh) tissue Carol had offered him gratefully.

“I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding,” Laura said kindly as she patted his shoulder, doing her best not to think of the insurance claim likely on an accident involving a tranquilliser dart as two paramedics and a gurney disappeared from her line of vision.

“You’re probably right,” Julie chipped in, leaning against the reception desk, grimacing as she held the matching red lace knickers between thumb and forefinger. “I’ve always had Gavin pegged as someone who’d go for a classier bird.”

Tim sobbed loudly, Laura glared, and Julie shrugged as Tim made a break for the sanctuary of a quiet cleaning cupboard.

“What did I say?”

Laura would have said more on the subject, probably, but Helen Brittas chose that moment to walk through the doors of the leisure centre, hair wild, and her cardigan buttoned up irregularly. Laura didn’t wait for an explanation before leading the way to the staff rest room.

“It was these new pills, you see,” Helen said as the door shut behind them, and Laura moved automatically to the kettle, one eyebrow lifting. “The packet said to take two every twelve hours, and I only took seven. I don’t understand how a few extra could have made so much difference.”

“What happened?” Laura prompted, wondering, not for the first time, how she had ended up in Whitbury.

* * *

“Ah, Colin,” Mr. Brittas called. “There you are.”

Gavin scurried to keep up with Brittas’ stride, then paused every other moment, torn between following Brittas and walking beside Charlotte. He wasn’t entirely sure he was the best candidate for her to be shadowing, especially not with the conclusions Tim was likely to jump to.

Mr. Brittas continued on obliviously, introducing Charlotte to the Centre's Manager of Building Fabric. Colin wiped a suspicious looking substance off on the front of his overalls and held his hand out. Charlotte took it tentatively, and Brittas didn’t even attempt to hide his grimace.

There was a flurry of turquoise then at the other end of the corridor, precipitating a yell of,

“Ah, Linda!”

Brittas paused only long enough to say a quiet, “you’d better escort our guest to the hand washing facilities,” in his ear before starting after Linda.

Gavin did as he was bid, exchanging small talk though in truth he was preoccupied with thoughts of Tim. It hadn’t been a good week for him, what with Mr. Brittas making the decision to personally supervise one of Tim’s shifts in its entirety in readiness for his upcoming performance evaluation meeting, and a four hour round trip to accident and emergency to be dismissed with a diagnosis of concussion. Finding women’s underwear in Gavin’s locker was only ever going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It was this thought running through his mind when Charlotte suddenly turned on her ankle, heel snagged in a somewhat hoof shaped indent in the carpet, and Gavin caught her on instinct, the two of them pressed tight together. Just as Tim rounded the corner.

* * *

“It seemed the safest thing to do,” Helen said as she and Laura made their way back out into the main reception area, “to put them in the first locker which opened. I hope Gordon doesn’t find out.”

Gordon Brittas, as it turned out, was standing only a few feet away from them. Helen pressed a hand to her mouth, nervous. Laura was more concerned with the way Councillor Druggett was waving a bra around, either oblivious to or uncaring of the small audience of school children gathered behind him.

“This must have come from your office,” Councillor Druggett accused. “And to think I’d been persuaded into letting my niece carry out her work experience with you.”

Brittas smiled serenely, using the tone they had recommended at the last seminar he had attended on dealing with dissatisfied customers. The vein in Druggett’s temple twitched visibly.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation for how the undergarment in question found its way about your person, but,“ he paused significantly, “I somewhat doubt it involved the centre.”

Councillor Druggett spluttered, colour rising alarmingly, and the scene might have turned nasty had not a flustered Charlotte Druggett crashed upon it, clinging to Councillor Druggett’s arm and pointing back in the general direction she had come from.

“Somebody stop them,” she managed, breathless. “They‘re going to kill each other!”

* * *

“I only met her this morning,” Gavin soothed once the worst of the pandemonium was over. Tim was holding a tissue to his bloodied nose, and it made Gavin’s heart lurch to see it. He just wasn’t very good at it, he supposed. Making Tim see how much he meant to him. It made the words fall from his lips, unguarded, “Why would I want anyone else when I‘ve got you?”

Tim dropped the tissue, gave him a half smile and a murmured ‘sorry’ that made Gavin feel like he was falling head over heels in love all over again. Gavin smiled back, helpless, and took Tim’s hand in his own, the one with the bruised knuckles. Tim leaned into him, gaze turning dark with something other than anger, and -

And the door of the rest room crashed open, Brittas rushing past them to collect the fire extinguisher, then made his way back through the doorway, looking distinctly singed about the edges.

“We’d better go and see what he’s done now,” Tim sighed, long suffering.

Gavin tugged him back by the hand, pulling him closer still until they were nose to nose, and his arms were wrapped around Tim.

“It can wait a minute.”

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, feel free to chat / hit me with prompts over on Tumblr [@serenwib](http://serenwib.tumblr.com/) or Twitter [@falsteloj](https://twitter.com/falsteloj). :)


End file.
